JAMMU, OCT 15: Five foreign militants, who fled from Ramgarh police station after killing a Special Police Officer (SPO) and a Selection Grade Constable (SGC) during the wee hours of Wednesday morning, appeared to have planned their escape soon after hearing about the change of guard in a military coup in Pakistan.The SGC Mahesh Kumar, who was struggling between life and death after being seriously injured by the escapees, succumbed to injuries in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital here on Wednesday night. Significantly, no senior police officer visited the injured to record his statement about the incident until his condition deteriorated on Wednesday evening.Four of the escapees were Pakistanis, while another was an Afghan national - all in the age group of 30-40 years. Senior police officials, however, denied their being militants saying that the escapees had inadvertently strayed into the Indian territory from across the international border and wereaccordingly convicted by the court under the Foreigners Act.For the last one to four years, they along with six others were staying at the police station awaiting their deportation to Pakistan. Their deportation was delayed due to continued tension on the borders, officials said.Sources, however, said that the militants had arranged a cocktail party for the policemen before their escape from the lock-up. Substantiating, they said that the escapees raised slogans in support of the change of guard in Pakistan soon after hearing news of military coup on transistor.Thereafter, they sent a constable to the village to purchase chicken and liquor. All the policemen there were then invited to the feast and they fell asleep after taking the liquor.As a result, none of them woke up when militants killed the SPO Rishi Kumar and seriously injured SGC Mahesh Kumar before fleeing from the police station. The deceased SGC appeared to have given a tough fight to the escapees in view of the bruises and multiplesharp edged weapon injuries all over his body.Some policemen, who had come to the hospital from the Ramgarh police station late in the evening, were reportedly manhandled by Mahesh's relatives soon after the death of the SGC. They were also heard accusing the policemen of having facilitated the militants' escape and getting their man killed in the process.The Superintendent of Police (Border), Gulzar Singh Salathia, however, denied the charge saying that Additional SP (Border) was at the police station till 10 pm in connection with an inquiry on Tuesday and no one had taken liquor there till late evening, he added.However, mystery surrounds as to how the militants came out of the lock-up and from where they got the sharp edged weapons to attack the sentries on duty. Moreover, why the police did not inform the nearby Army and Border Security Force (BSF) units, as also the senior police officers and the Police Control Room (PCR) at Jammu about the incident the same night, is also unclear.The DeputyInspector General of Police, Dr S P Vaid, came to know about the incident only in the morning. The Army and the BSF units in the area were also alerted against the fleeing foreign nationals much later.Significantly, according to senior police officials, there were ten Pakistanis and an Afghan national in the police lock-up. However, of them, only five made good their escape.While four of the remaining six foreign nationals were reported to be mentally insane, mystery surrounds as to why the other two did not escape taking advantage of the situation.Salathia said that the escapees had procured a duplicate key of the lock-up. However, Vaid, after having visited the police station yesterday, had said that four of the remaining six people in the lock-up were insane. Quoting the other two, he had said that they remained asleep as the escapees had not taken them into confidence while executing their plan.
